by Sue Vasser <suev@tenet.edu.> 3rd grade teacher Austin, Texas 78731
RATIONALE With the overwhelming evidence that interactive activities in education produce better learning, I wanted to incorporate several facets of this style of learning into my Social Studies project. It is my belief that with only a little modification, teachers from others grade levels would be able to adapt this lesson idea.
SUBJECT AND AUDIENCE Social Studies (Communities), 3rd grade
OBJECTIVES 1. Students will describe how their community is similar and different from other communities in the United States. 2. Students will simulate the growth and development or decline of a city or small town. 3. Students will cite factors relating to a population's growth or decline. 4. Students will gather data from different communities in the U.S. to assist in their research. 5. Students will relate their findings to the cities they have connected with through the internet. MATERIALS NEEDED Computer with hard drive, printer, modem and software, access to the internet, and SimCity (software program by Maxis), and classes around the United States willing to contribute information about their community through e-mail. PRIOR KNOWLEDGE Students should become familiar with the computer program, SimCity. In this program they will need to be able to maneuver around so as to construct their cities and deal with disasters. They will experience the need to make ,save and spend money wisely. There is plenty of opportunity for teachers to expand this program into the areas of math and science as well as social studies. Students will also need to feel comfortable logging onto the internet and the tasks necessary to accomplish the task. For this particular unit students will need to be able to use e-mail, the Geographic Name Server, the Underground Weather Service. and the World Factbook. TIMELINE 3 weeks to establish prior knowledge and teacher preparation and 3 weeks to complete assignments. TEACHER PREPARATION Create an invitation to participate in the project, and post the invitation on matchmaker with the appropriate guidelines as outlined by two articles presently posted on Matchmaker,"Keys to Successful Telecomputing" by Al Rogers, Yvonne Andres, Mary Jacks, The FrEDMail Foundation, Published in The Computing Teacher, May, 1990, Page 25ff and "Tips for Successful Telecommunications Projects" by B.J. and J.A. Dodge. Both of these are great. Through this preparation, I would hope to find classes from several different kinds of communities such as farming, mining, and port communities. The teacher should learn the program SimCity City and be prepared to teach it as a large group instruction. Later students will break into groups for their own special endeavors. TELECOMMUNICATION SITES USED 1. Geographic Name Server--telnet martini.eecs.umich.edu 3000 2. Underground Weather--telnet madlab.sprl.umich.edu 3000 3. World Factbook--telnet lib.dartmouth.edu 4. Matchmaker (News and Conferences) 5. e-mail PROCEDURE 1. Several weeks prior to starting the unit post the call for collaboration. 2. Teach the students how to log on to the internet and perhaps let them practice e-mailing some classes in nearby schools. 3. Prepare the students to use the software program, SimCity. 4. Begin the unit. Students will be divided into three groups; mining, farming, and ports. These groups will brainstorm the kind of information they would like to collect from their new internet friends and then make contact with the participating schools respectively. Hopefully, the students will in turn use the data and information they are collecting to help them make some good decisions when building their different communities. Each group will be constructing the kind of community they were assigned to Students will keep a log or journal of each day's activities and record pertinent information gathered either from telnet sites, e-mail or their SimCity program. Each group will at the end of 3 weeks report their findings in a class presentation, using charts and graphs showing data collected and success or failure of their community and tell why. As a part of each day, I will present general but basic information about these three types of communities. Our textbook has a lot to offer in terms of basic information. Each day students will also check the Underground Weather Service (telnet madlab.sprl.umich.edu 3000) to record the temperature of their 'sister city' or one nearby. In the beginning students will telnet to martini.eecs.umich.edu 3000 to access the Geographic Name Server. Using this they will record longitude and latitude, population etc. from this site.of their sister city. This information will be used in their class report. Students will also telnet lib.dartmouth.edu to use the World Factbook. Using this will take some teacher guidance at the 3rd grade level. From this site information about specific ports, mines and farming regions around the world are available. The conclusion of this project will be the presentation of the group reports. If students show reasons why changes took place and can explain or justify their choices when building their community, as well as give first hand information from the internet city, I will consider the project successful. INTEGRATED ACTIVITIES 1. Display a world may showing location of cities that we are "typing' to. 2. Write stories whose settings are in our different communities. 3. Write a song about our kind of community. 4. Draw a diagram of of each simulated city. 5. Read stories and books set in each of the communities. (A Paradise Called Texas by Janice Shefelman) 6. Write letters to the internet cities explaining what we are learning and share our final data collection with them SUMMARY The students will be personally involved in being city planners of the future. They will use information gathered from their internet friends and their communities to make good decisions in creating the simulated cities. In this process students will use many skills and resources from all classes as they learn some new and valuable computing skills. Software Program Information: SimCity, 3rd grade through adult, Maxis Software Two Theatre Square, Suite 230, Orinda, CA 94563-3346 $39.95
